KNE100TX and AMI Goliath oddness.

Jan-Derk Bakker (bakker@thorgal.et.tudelft.nl)
Thu, 7 Aug 1997 12:03:16 +0200 (MET DST)


Hello all,

Two days ago we got our first AMI Goliath 4PPro (Orion chipset, 128 MB mem).
Because of our 'interesting' experiences with the 3c905, we ordered it with
2 Kingston KNE100TX Fast Ethernet cards, based on the DEC 21140-AE chip. The
cards are connected to a Bay Fast Ethernet switch, port set for 100Mbps
full duplex, flow control disabled.

Trouble is, none of the 2.1 kernels I tried will work with this setup. The
only config that *does* work is the 2.0.30 that comes with RH 4.2, with the
de4x5 driver.

configurations that do *not* work:
- 2.0.30 with tulip driver
- 2.1.35 or 2.1.38 or 2.1.48
with de4x5 v0.5, de4x5 v0.52, de4x5 v0.442, tulip v0.72

In all of the non-working cases the driver *does* load without error, it
just can't be ping-ed and it can't ping out. I spent most of yesterday going
through all permutations (modules, PCI latency, assigned/auto interrupt, SMP
on/off...), and in all cases that I tried only the 2.0.30 with de4x5 works.

The *really* weird thing is that jolan, a 2PPro with an Asus M/B, *does*
work with a stock 2.1.38 with the de4x5 driver. If I copy this kernel (transfer
vmlinuz and rerun LILO) the machine will boot and recognize the card, but
still no connectivity.

Anyway, /proc/pci says:
Bus 0, device 7, function 0:
Ethernet controller: DEC DC21140 (rev 34).
Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. IRQ 11. Master Capable. Latency=32. Min Gnt=20.Max Lat=40.
I/O at 0xdc00.
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfeaeff80.
Bus 0, device 6, function 0:
Ethernet controller: DEC DC21140 (rev 34).
Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. IRQ 9. Master Capable. Latency=32. Min Gnt=20.Max Lat=40.
I/O at 0xd880.
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfeaeff00.

and the bootup message:
loading device 'eth0'...
eth0: de4x5_probe() cannot find device at 0x000b.
loading device 'eth0'...
eth0: de4x5_probe() cannot find device at 0x000b.
loading device 'eth0'...
eth0: DC21140 at 0xdc00 (PCI bus 0, device 7), h/w address 00:c0:f0:16:d3:9c,
and requires IRQ11 (provided by PCI BIOS).
eth0: DC21140 at 0xd880 (PCI bus 0, device 6), h/w address 00:c0:f0:16:d4:03,
and requires IRQ9 (provided by PCI BIOS).
eth0: mode is 100Mb/s.

Any ideas ? This wouldn't be like the Goliath-Myrinet problem I saw recently,
would it ?

Sincerely,

Jan-Derk Bakker.